I have twice taken part in the Park Run at Pollock Park. It is a good 5k training course with a couple uphill sections. My personal best for the course is 29:27 which is also the fast I have run a timed 5k.

The 10k season is approaching and so far I have entered the Troon 10k, the Polaroid 10k Series (4 races), the Men’s Health Forum 10k. and the Great Scottish Run 10k.  I am also taking part in the Walk for Scotland with a friend in Edinburgh and I have entered the Jog Scotland 5k.  The Stirling 10k is a possibility at the end of the season.

Away to try and loosen off a slightly tight achilles.

When the weather gets warmer or when I work out how to deal with my lungs and cold weather better I want to try the timed 5km runs at Pollok Park on Saturday mornings. These are organised through Park Run.

Entries are open for the Polaroid Eyewear 10K Road Race Series 2009 so I will get my entry in at the end of the month. The fourth race is over 2 weeks after the third race. When I heard this I thought it would give me the chance to run the Mens Health Forum 10k which is usually the same day and is within walking distance of home. However it is also on a week later so still on the same day as the Vale of Leven

This year want to do other 10k races before the Polaroid series.

This year I did no preparation for the 10k races that I entered, also I did not get any weight loss going at the start of the year. The result was some of my slowest times for the 10k and I decided not to run the Great Scottish and the Stirling 10k’s that I have done the last two years. Instead I am making a proper effort to get fit and lose weight and I will take on the 10k races again in 2009.

I started using a site called Gyminee.com in July so that I could monitor my food intake and exercise. So far I have lost 18lb. My profile is here

My exercise has consisted of using the rowing machine that I bought at the start of the year, long walks, some free weights and a jog with a friend once a week. I have started to hit the limit that I can do with the walking, although I can easily walk 30km as I did on Saturday, it does take a long time and I am not in training for walking from Land’s End to John o’Groats, not yet anyway   I need to up the tempo of my exercise so I decided to join a gym. I have previously been a gym member but I fell into the usual way of going for the first three months then just resenting it. This time however I am not starting cold and I have longer term aims than I did before. Today I signed up for the Glasgow Club so I get unlimited access to most of the facilities at the Glasgow Leisure centres. My gym induction is on Friday so I will need to get a new pair of trainers.

I am hoping that in the next few weeks I will start to be able to actually jog a full 10k course. My current best is 7.2km, this is a lot further than I have ever managed in a race.

My personal best for a 10k race is 1 hour 2 minutes and 57 seconds which was in the Dumbarton 10k in 2007.

I realize that I have problems with motivation when I am out running. I just don’t push myself enough and that has to change.

One of the routes I did this weekend is below.

I plan to do a few light training runs in the coming weeks, I know that until now my non-existent training has prevented me from greatly improving my times in the 10K. I will not repeat last years nonsense when I ran the 10K in Helensburgh without having done any training.

I decided to try the spray-on plaster stuff but that has also resulted in blistering of the skin and more than a bit of pain. I have used a spray I have for burns and that has taken most of the pain away, the spray-on plaster has now dissolved as it is supposed to do after two days.

With any luck by next weekend it will be back to normal, fingers crossed.